the sound of silence

wow. it's been a while.

the sad part is, really, that nothing terribly interesting has happened since last i posted. i am still working two jobs, both of which have caused me periods of immense, though short-lived frustration. our bedroom air-conditioner is still broken, which means that our apartment is consistently hot and humid, because the poor living room air-conditioner cannot possibly cool the entire apartment no matter how long we leave it turned on as high as it will go. matt's sister visited for part of this week, and it was really great to see her. ruth is avoiding all talk of leaving for college...i remember how it felt. you know that your friends are going to leave and that you are going to have to move away from home and start something entirely new and different, and the best way you can hope to deal with it is to ignore it. she's a strong girl (much stronger than people give her credit for...much stronger than she'll ever let on to the general public), and i know that she'll love college. lasting the fear of the end of the summer is the bigger part of the battle.

speaking of battles, matt and i have already finished half of The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, our foray into co-op rpg-ing. the game has grown on me since we started. it's much more guided in terms of quests and explorations - you have little room to backtrack, there are few (if any) side quests, and the game doesn't expect much mindpower out of you, seeing as it tells you pretty much exactly where you need to go, what you need to do, how to get there, and doesn't give you much room to wander off the path. there is no money or purchasing component, nor is there much of the usual talking to random people in order to gain information and to advance the plot. but while advancing the plot is not terribly interesting or challenging, the game does an amazing job at battles. it offers you a huge number of interesting and specialized attacks, both physical and magic, and there is an impressive range and frequency to upgrading your armor. the armor part is my favorite, because the game really does outfit your characters as you acquire armor and equip it. lots of shiny things. AND, elegost (the character in the game akin to aragorn) acquires this SWEET hooded cape. it is extremely sexy.

let me think....other things to update...

well, for one thing, matt is starting to sort of maybe consider law school as a potential option for a new career path. i can see his lsat prep book sitting on its shelf, as yet unopened. it seems to serve as a decent representation of what's going on in matt's head. serious enough thought, but not yet at a point of action. the new book is like the shiny new idea. but opening the book would necessarily mean that he's going to move on that idea. the nice part is that he doesn't have to decide whether or not to go right now, he only has to decide whether or not to apply. thoughts and prayers would be much appreciated!

as for my summer reading list....i've gotten sidetracked. not only did i read a severed wasp(my favorite book of all time!), but i have recently decided to reread the lord of the rings trilogy. so i'm still reading a ton...just not doing so well with my list.

other than that...my parents visit next weekened (yay!), and i'll get to see pictures from beth's trip to norway, the last few pictures that i don't have from our wedding, and pictures from our friends jon and gretchen's wedding that we went to a couple weeks ago. we had a great time - we were back in minnesota, and we got to spend time with old friends (and steph drove up!). we got to visit st. olaf, hang out in northfield, see a twins game...and we definitely talked about how much we loved it there, how much we could see ourselves ending up there someday. and on a totally unrelated note, i've also spent time knitting after an unplanned and unexplained hiatus. i've decided that as a knitter, i'm more cut out for knitting small, nontraditional things instead of sweaters. for instance, i'm knitting covers for our sofa's throw pillows right now. i've even been dorky enough to compile an entire amazon wish list dedicated to books of nontraditional knitting patterns. :)

anyways...that was a lot of disorganized material. life hasn't been so boring, i suppose, just not as blog-worthy. but now, my laptop is making my legs way too hot, so i'm going to go. it's bedtime anyway.

g'night!